Why Shrine Beautiful?

One common factor in many of these paths is the use of a constructed sacred space. It might be called a shrine, altar, or something else entirely. It may be used to present offerings to the gods, venerate ancestors, or provide a magical workspace.

There are many ‘show off your shrine’ threads on the web, but most of them are path-specific and don’t give you any context- the how and why. What separates this shrine or altar from an interesting pile of knickknacks?

It’s the goal of ShrineBeautiful to expand our horizons, experiencing the breadth of the pagan world through the lens of personal sacred spaces.

This is a blog, with comments enabled. If you have a question about one of the shrines, don’t be shy.

No trolls allowed: disrespectful comments will be eliminated.

*For this site, I’m using the umbrella definition of ‘pagan,’ meaning “a person following a faith or belief system that’s not Jewish, Christian, or Muslim. (It may or may not include Hindu or Buddhist, depending on how people identify their practice.)

Harry

Hmm. I think there is a case for including Hinduism under the pagan umbrella. After all, just because it never went extinct doesn't mean it isn't pagan, and as the Vedic Hindu deities at least (can't speak for the others) can be traced to the same Indo-European roots as the Celtic or the Norse or the Roman, surely Hindu Polytheism comes under the same category as Celtic Polytheism, Asatru or Religio Romana.

If someone submits their Hindu shrine, I certainly won't refuse it, which is why I said "probably." I'll change the wording to say it might include Hindu or Buddhist, because someone might self-identify as pagan, or non-pagan.